Cases

Question 0

R v Miller

Answer 0

M fell asleep with a cigarette. When he woke up he realised that the cigarette had started a fire, but he simply moved to another room

Held -
M owed a duty of care due to his act

Question 1

Fagan v Metropolitan Police Commisioner

Answer 1

F accidentally drove his car onto a police officers foot. When he realised, he refused to remove the car

Held - the external act was ongoing when F realised and didn’t move, therefore the external and fault elements coincided

Question 2

R v Church

Answer 2

D attacked a woman intending to cause GBH. V became unconscious and D thought she had died, so threw her body into a lake. V died from drowning

Held -
This was a whole series of events, so the external and fault elements coincided

Question 5

R v Pittwood

Answer 5

D had a contractual job to open and close level crossing gates at trains. He failed to close the gates and the victim was killed

Held - d had a duty towards, not just his contracting party, but to any third party that might be affected by his omission

Question 6

R v Gibbons and Proctor

Answer 6

Both Ds had 15 children to look after between them. The victim was bullied by the other children and eventually died of starvation

Held - d failed to properly look after the child, to whom they had a special relationship

Question 7

R v Stone and Dobinson

Answer 7

S and D were partners. The victim was s’s young sister who was anorexic and ill. The v was found dead

Manslaughter

Held - they had taken responsibility for the victim was so were guilty

Question 9

Larsonneur

Answer 9

D had a French passport and did not have permission to stay in the UK
She went to Ireland, where she was physically on a ferry to Wales by the police officers
Aliens Order 1920 ‘being an alien to whom leave to land in the UK has been refused, was found in the UK’

Held - the statute is clearly worded that this is a status offence
D liable

Question 10

Winzar v Chief Constable of Kent

Answer 10

D was removed from a hospital for being drunk and put on the highway by the police
Another group of police found him and charged him with
Licensing Act 1872 for being drunk in a public place or highway

Held - the fact that he was put there by the police was not relevant
Status offence

Question 11

AG Reference (no 3 of 1994)

Answer 11

The defendant stabbed his pregnant girlfriend several times. She recovered but had a premature birth and the baby died after 120 days.

Held - the d could not be guilty of murder

The d did not intend to kill the baby

Transferred malice cannot be transferred twice - from the mother to the foetus, from the foetus to the baby

Could be guilty of manslaughter

Question 12

Cunningham (1982)

Answer 12

Fault element for murder; subjective recklessness test

Facts - C attacked a man he thought was involved with his mistress and the man died.

C argued that he did not intend to kill the man, although he intended to cause serious harm

Held -
Fault element for murder - the fault element of murder is wider than simple intention to kill (express malice), also includes implied malice (intention to cause GBH)

Subjective recklessness - foresight of risk of particular harm

Question 13

R v White

Answer 13

Factual causation, but for test

Facts - W intended to kill his mother. He poisoned her tea, but not enough to kill her. She ended up dying from natural causes unrelated to the poison.

Held - could not be guilty of murder because there was no factual causation.

But for test - would the victim have died but for the defendants conduct?
If yes, then the defendant did not cause the death

Question 14

Smith (1959)

Answer 14

Legal causation

Facts - S was a member if the army serving in Germany. S stabbed the deceased. A friend of the victim carried him to the first aid post, but dropping him several times. At the first aid post, v was left waiting for several hours due to lack of staff.

Held - S was guilty of murder

If at the time of death the original wound was an operating and substantial cause of the death

Only if the second acts were so overwhelming as to make the original wound “merely a part of the history” can it be said that the death doesn’t flow from the wound

Substantial - significant cause, Pagett
Operating - no novus actus interveniens

Question 15

Pagett

Answer 15

Facts - D used his girlfriend as a shield and shot at the police. When they shot back, his girlfriend was killed.

Held - convicted of manslaughter

The defendants act doesn’t need to be the sole cause of the death. Only need to show that the defendants actions “contributed significantly to that result”

Question 16

Hayward

Answer 16

Facts - H threatened his wife with violence and she ran out of the house in a panic. She dropped dead from a previously unknown medical condition that could be aggravated by stress.

Held - convicted of manslaughter

H could not rely on the medical condition to avoid the conviction of manslaughter.

Question 17

Blaue

Answer 17

Facts - D stabbed the victim, puncturing her lung. She was taken to the hospital but refused a blood transfusion for religious reasons. She died

Held - convicted of manslaughter upheld

Thin skull rule applied to psychological traits of the victim, including beliefs

Question 18

Roberts

Answer 18

Facts - D was giving the v a ride home and attempted to take off her coat.she jumped out of the car and injured herself.

Held - convicted of assault occasioning ABH upheld

Only if the victims actions were “so daft” as to be unforeseeable would it constitute a novus actus interviniens

Question 19

Cheshire

Answer 19

Facts - D shot the victim in the leg and had surgery. The victim suffered complications from the surgery, which the hospital failed to recognise, leading to their death

Held - conviction upheld

It is accepted that the original wound was no longer the immediate cause of the death. However, the need for the surgery flowed from the defendants original act and thus he remained liable

Question 20

Mohan

Answer 20

Direct intention given it’s everyday meaning

Question 21

R v Woolin (1998)

Answer 21

Facts - w lost his temper with his 3 year old sin and threw him across the room. The boy died

Convicted if murder

Held - appeal for change to manslaughter allowed

Oblique intention test

1) death or serious harm was a virtual certainty barring some unforeseen intervention
2) the defendant appreciated that this was the case

Virtual certainty is a very high standard

Question 22

R and G

Answer 22

Facts - two kids aged 11/12 set fire to some newspapers in a garbage bin next to a supermarket. This caused the supermarket to burn and caused £1m in damage

Charged with criminal damage

Held -
applying Cunningham subjective recklessness test - the children did not have foresight of the risk of the damage

Question 23

Adomako (1995)

Answer 23

Facts - A was an anesthesiologist during an eye surgery. He failed to notice that the ventilator had become disconnected for 6 minutes. The patient died.

Gross negligence manslaughter

Held -

The test for gross negligence manslaughter

1) D owes a duty of care
2) Breach of that duty
3) Breach is so serious that, in the opinion of the jury, amounts to a crime

Question 24

Latimer

Answer 24

Facts - L tried to hit a man with his belt but instead hit a bystander woman

Held - conviction of assault and battery upheld

Transferred malice - can be transferred from one victim to another of the same crime

Question 25

Pembliton

Answer 25

Facts - D attempted to throw an object at a man but instead it broke a window

Held - cannot transfer malice from one crime to another (criminal damage)

Question 26

Dawes

Answer 26

Held - qualifying trigger was not available where the defendant had deliberately sought to provide himself an excuse by inciting/encouraging the victim

Question 27

Asmelash

Answer 27

Facts - while voluntarily intoxicated, the defendant killed the victim with a knife after he insulted his mother.

Held - voluntary intoxication does not form part of the circumstances for consideration under s.54(3)

Question 28

Clinton (2012)

Answer 28

Facts - C and his wife suffered from depression and were on medication for it. After she confessed having an affair, C killed her.

Convicted of murder

Held - appeal allowed, retrial ordered

although sexual infidelity cannot be relied on in itself as a qualifying trigger, it’s existence doesn’t preclude the defence as a whole where there exists other qualifying triggers.

Question 29

Dietschmann

Answer 29

Facts - D killed another prison inmate while grieving and drunk

Held - intoxication alone was not an abnormality of the mind

Question 30

Byrne

Answer 30

Diminished responsibility

Facts - B murdered a young woman and mutilated her body.

B claimed he was suffering from uncontrollable impulses from which he chad no control

Held - murder conviction quashed

Question 31

Lowe

Answer 31

Facts - D failed to call a doctor to attend to his sick infant. The child died

Held - manslaughter conviction quashed

An omission, even if it is deliberate, will not suffice.

Question 32

Kennedy

Answer 32

Facts - the d prepared a heroin filled syringe for the victim, who injected himself and died.

Held - not guilty of manslaughter

The act of preparing the syringe and giving it to the deceased was not unlawful

Question 33

Lamb

Answer 33

Facts - d pointed a gun at his friend as a joke. He knew it was loaded but thought the safety was on. He pulled the trigger and killed his friend.

Held - conviction for involun manslaughter quashed

There was no unlawful act that the defendant was guilty of.

Question 34

DPP v Newbury

Answer 34

Facts - N and J, the two defendants, pushed some concrete over a bridge onto a railway. A train was passing as the concrete fell and the stone killed the train guard.

Held - conviction upheld

Straightforward example of unlawful act manslaughter

Question 35

Dawson

Answer 35

Facts - D and two other men were robbing a gas station. The cashier at the station, a man aged 60, had a heart attack and died.

Held - conviction upheld**?

The trial judge, in summing up to the jury, gave the impression that emotional disturbance suffered by the cashier was enough to constitute harm.
Harm is caused only if the shock leads to a physical injury

Question 36

Lidar 2000

Answer 36

Subjective recklessness manslaughter

Facts - L had an argument with the victim. The victim was leaning in through the car window, and L drove off with the victim dangling out of the car. The victim died.

Convicted of manslaughter

Held -

in order to be liable, the defendant must

1) have foreseen a risk of injury or death occurring
2) assessed that risk as being at least highly probable

Question 37

Ireland 1997

Answer 37

Facts - D made a series of silent phone calls late at night over 3 months to the victims. The women suffered psychiatric problems due to this.

Convicted of assault occasioning ABH

Held - conviction upheld

Silence could amount to an assault
Psychiatric injury could amount to ABH

Question 38

Burstow 1998

Answer 38

Facts - D was dumped by his girlfriend and was harassing her over a period of 8 months. He made silent phone calls, and sent her hate mail. She suffered depression over this.

Held -

Psychiatric injury could amount to bodily harm under s.20
The word inflict in the provision simply means cause, and so there is no end for physical force to be directly/indirectly applied

Question 39

Constanza

Answer 39

Facts - D made written threats to the victim in a letter

Convicted of s.47

Held - conviction upheld

Written threats could suffice as threat of immediate violence. The victim could not know whether the violence would happen at some time in the immediate future.

Question 40

Lawrence 1972

Answer 40

Facts - D was a taxi driver and con man. He lied as to how much a taxi trip should cost.

D was charged with theft

Held - the fact that the victim consented was irrelevant. D did appropriate the money